Bharat Petroleum looks to invest Rs 1 lakh crore over 5 years for expansion

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd is looking to invest Rs 1 lakh crore over the next five years for expansion. The company will use the investment for refinery upgradation, marketing infrastructure, petrochemicals production and city-gas distribution.

D Rajkumar, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Petroleum Corporation, said, "This will help the company expand its refining capacity to 50 million metric tonnes in five years and gas production to 5 million metric tonnes in four years."

As of March 2018, Bharat Petroleum’s group refineries have processed the total crude oil of 31.35 million metric tonnes. The company’s gas production stood at 1.87 million metric tonnes.

The state-run oil marketer is planning to spend Rs 7,400 crore in the ongoing financial year. Rajkumar said, "This is for the ongoing projects, especially for the Kochi and Mumbai refineries as well as some marketing projects."

The company is further looking to upgrade its Mumbai refinery from 12 million metric tonnes per annum to 14 million metric tonnes per annum. Besides, it plans to expand the capacity of its Assam-based Numaligarh refinery from 3 million metric tonnes per annum to 9 million metric tonnes per annum.

In the coming years, Bharat Petroleum will also expand the capacity of Bina refinery to 15.5 million metric tonnes per annum.